For The Purist

Using Blue Note artists and catalog as a starting point, these compilations are a fun, funky way to introduce people to Jazz and associated genres. These are definitely not for the purist Jazz fan (indeed, some titles barely contain any out-and-out Jazz at all), but all have that rare groove/early Funk influence that appeals to a wide range of people and have a real chance of being picked up by the younger end of the Jazz demographic. Using a wide range of material, each album is a compilation that raids the Blue Note vaults as well as mining the archives at Capitol and many other labels. As such, they are a great primer for any casual buyer that wants to pick up some jazzy titles without being too serious about it. 15 tracks including cuts from Willie Bobo, Bobby Womack, Grant Green, Earl Klugh, Candido and others.

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.

When trombonist/producer Wayne Henderson, pianist/keyboardist Joe Sample, sax-man Wilton Felder, and drummer Stix Hooper changed their name from the Jazz Crusaders to the Crusaders back in 1971, it signaled a more R&B-minded direction for the group – they were always funky, but in the '70s, they became even funkier. And so, the names the Crusaders and the Jazz Crusaders came to stand for two different things – if the Jazz Crusaders were synonymous with a funky yet acoustic-oriented approach to hard bop (à la Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers), the Crusaders were about electric-oriented jazz-funk and fusion. In 1995, Henderson (who left the Crusaders in 1975) resurrected the name the Jazz Crusaders and produced Happy Again for the small, Los Angeles-based Sin-drome Records.

If you owned a blues club and insisted that you would only book hardcore blues purists, you would miss out on a lot of talented people. That's because so many of the artists playing the blues circuit in the 21st century have other influences – perhaps rock, perhaps soul, perhaps jazz. All of those things have influenced James Solberg, who is essentially a bluesman but is far from a purist. Those who expect everything a bluesman records to have 12 bars are bound to find One of These Days disappointing, but more eclectic and broad-minded listeners will find a lot to admire about this German release, which finds the charming singer embracing everything from moody, Bobby "Blue" Bland-ish soul-blues (&"One of These Days," "Everyday") to exuberant blues-rock ("One False Move," "Too Damn Much Lovin'").